Tag: one camera

Are you an asian planning to go Iceland. Read on how i visited this place and what gears to use and places i recommend to stay.

I would like to share a bit on Reykjavik in my previous travel to Iceland. Almost nobody seems to be interested much in what Reykjavik have to offer in terms of tourism as everyone’s itinerary is to use that city as a stepping stone to the offsite tours.

The offsite tours are what Iceland is famous for, no doubt about that, but there are reason why this city shouldn’t be left out of your itinerary. Here are some reasons why i felt you owe Reykjavik two days of stopover.

People. If you want to see how the people in Iceland are, you have to visit and stay in the town for a few days, better still, stay in an AirBnB home and you could find yourself graced by the warmth of the Icelandic hospitality. You are not going to find much interaction with real Icelandic people if you are just on the tours, except for the tour guide.

fotografi shop / casio TR 21mm

Local Shops. Apart from the dreaded made in china souvenirs that you can find in every single Scandinavian and Europe city, Reykjavik is no exception, but there are many local brands and shops that you can find here that have survived and made themselves relevant.

There is this particular photography shop that have analogue aura all over it. You can’t miss the fotografi.is shop on the right side of the shophouses as you walked up the city. However when i went in i realized that they don’t sell any analogue cameras or film, but they showcase photography works from various photographers and made them for sale as prints here.

behind fotografired hair

Culture. Apart from their unique language (Icelandic tongue is probably the most complicated language in the world), you can feel the culture here is slightly different than say, Denmark. Maybe its due to the fact that these people have to survive in this forsaken ice-land and have successfully done so, they tend to appreciate and respect nature in both their way of living and communication.

It is hard to imagine living in Iceland from birth and growing up there with the constant history reminding you of angry volcanoes, crazy winters and sharing blood with the Vikings. Probably kids grow up listening to stories made up to represent the potent forces of nature here like the wind, earth, sun and water.

It is said that 1:10 people here would publish a book. That is true with my airbnb host Brynar.

phone and vape, thats about right

The younger generation does seems similar to Europeans and with elements that show influences from Germany and countries across the sea. I came across a music video recording while i was strolling along the city and even though i can’t understand the language, the feel, vibe and presentation of the artist was similar.

There are probably a lot of celebration done in Reykjavik to commemorate events in Iceland. I happened to witness a vintage car procession that took place in the middle of the city.

Vintage cars
Those cars are in very good condition and proudly driven by their owners as they drove slowly thru the streets. I spend one of the afternoon just visiting the city’s main attraction like the rocket church and another afternoon strolling thru each corner of the city. The walk from my host’s house to Reykjavik took me around 20 minutes.

bicycles

What i do find missing in spades are local fashion. There is an outlet for a local brand Geysir, which could be the word for geyser (one of the attraction in Iceland) at the corner and that was about the only one i recognized. I have seen the magazine in the IcelandAir and in its console advertisements.

Now about that stroll in Reykjavik…

fish & chipsby the opera houseopera house

I really enjoyed walking to Reykjavik by passing thru the Opera House, along the coastline and into the main centre. It will take you around 5 minutes from the Opera House to Reykjavik centre.

The best local food is the indisputable cod fish & chips that can be found in restaurants and even a roadside truck. They are as fresh as money could buy and taste fantastic no matter where i tried them. My favourite is the one from that simple roadside truck.

I went on summer, around August 2017 and the beautiful golden sun sets around 4-6 pm, so if you going there on summer, those strolls will become very memorable as the light streaming thru the city is beautiful.

sunset at reykjavik

I barely started on the Iceland tours. It seems that this series of images will be a long one. I hope you enjoyed this 3rd instalment of my travel with a single camera series. Do leave me a comment if these image inspired you in anyway, cheers.

Like this:

Yeah, i went to iceland. Let me just drag that timeline cursor to the beginning so i can share some of the tips and ideas you can do while travelling to iceland, especially so if you are not an expert backpacker or if you are coming from Asian countries like malaysia, singapore or thailand.

Before i took this journey, i had tons of tips coming from well meaning folks about what i should or should not do in iceland. “You will need to spend at least RM 5k (USD 1.3k) on gears and clothing!” says one uncle, who had never been there himself. “Why are you going on summer?, you will miss the aurora lights!”, says the other.

A short advice about these things that ppl dishes out to you….”ignore”, it’s absolutely ridiculous to take any of those advices given that different seasons in Iceland requires a firsthand experience, not from some imaginative minds.

Well here are the cost breakdown that i had spent on my own clothing and gears :

water proof shoes (iphone 7+)

waterproof shoes – karrimor shoes, from sports direct RM 250 (usd 60). i got mine from the sports direct outlet at Double Tree Hotel. Even though i went on summer, i faced unpredictable weather in Iceland and lots of walking and simple hiking. Don’t be penny wise and pound foolish, get yourself a waterproof boot or shoes.

waterproof jackets from uniqlo / blocktech (35mm zeiss FE f2.0)

uniqlo blocktech jacket – RM 120uniqlo, you will need these water repellent and wind proof jackets so that you can get behind some of the beautiful waterfalls in Iceland. If you notice most instagrams have the picture of the person way in front of the waterfall, its because they didn’t bring these jackets along. Get the ones with the hood.

Get near the waterfalls (iphone 7+)

Bring other basic clothing like pants, gloves and i totally recommend those light clothing from Uniqlo’s heattech.

Now that you have the basic gears covered, you will need to book the flight ticket. There is no direct flight to Iceland from Malaysia, so we went there using Thai Airways, 1 day stop in Bangkok, landed in Denmark and went on a direct flight to Reykjavik using IcelandAir. The flight from Denmark to Iceland that we took is not a connecting flight, its a separate flight that we booked online and it was 3 hours departure from our ETA to Denmark, so we took a little risk there.

IcelandAir Direct Routes

Now, the CAMERA. For the last few travels i did, i always chose film over digital but for Iceland i decided to bring my trusty Sony A7s with three batteries and a Casio TR wide angle camera (otherwise also known as selfie girls cam hahaha, a little bit on that later). So why? Why digital over film, fact is that i kinda chickened out, i could not google up much information on film labs and availability in Iceland and given that this is one trip that i needed wide angle lens, i have the 35mm Zeiss f2.8. I have partly regretted that i didn’t bring along a film camera for a surprise reason that will be shown later on!.

That one Camera one Lens

For the next chapter i will be sharing on some of the early photos i took using this setup and other things i encountered with my family during our visit to Iceland.